Cimbing contrasts

Last week, Jo and I joined a trip organised by the Wellington Alpine Club to Whanganui Bay (pronounced fan-ga-nui) at Lake Taupo. One of New Zealands best rock climbing venues with over a 1000 routes spread out over several crags which overlook Lake Taupo. So stunning vistas and weather meant that there were no excuses.

Drove up Friday night and stayed in Turangi, which is best described as a ghost town the locals visit for food shopping! We found the pub but it shit at ten so we quickly ordered a couple of rounds and hoped that we wouldn't be turfed out before we finished. The backpackers was quite good especially as it had its own climbing wall, and a decent one at that, certainly better than the one in Wellington.

Unfortunately Saturday night was worse than Friday, everything closing at 9pm!

The climbing was good though, the highlights being a leads of Tibia, a three pitch classic involving 'traditional' gritstone chimney techniques as well as some 'out there' bridging and which comes complete with its own Maori skeleton and Ego Trip, a large slab climbed using a thin and unrelenting crack.

The crags are located on Maori land and some of the crags can't be climbed plus you have a to pay a small fee for the privilege of climbing. The venue is stunning though and well worth the trip.

Yesterday, Steve Michin and myself went in search of the mythical Tinui Slabs. Rumour has it that no-one has climbed here in a couple of years and some previous trips never made it to the crag, having become lost in the bush below and given up. We were made of sterner stuff, but only just! It all started well with an easy to follow walk in, but then we entered the bush and wondered what we'd let ourselves in for. Not sure how longer it took, but we eventually found the slabs.

We happened to approach our chosen climb from the top so abseiled in and made our second mistake by not leaving an evacuation rope (our first mistake was to visit Tinui!). It soon became apparent that no-one had climbed here in years although the bolts were surprising new, as all the slab was covered in lichens and dirt which made the climbing all but impossible. So suitably beaten and without any easy ascent, we began to search for alternatives which included abseiling further down to try to find a route out but to no avail and aid climbing one of the harder routes, a process which was halted when distance between the bolts increased and I wasn't able to gain any purchase on the rock to make the necessary moves!

We eventually found a route up through another gully, although it did require a fair bit of bush bashing, but in the end we were reunited with our rucksacks and more importantly our water, having both harboured thoughts of getting stuck at the bottom!

Steve has vowed to return!